Still Friends?
by o0Black-Sand0o
Summary: Adopted from X-Jinxa-X. Robin is turned into a girl by a scientist. Now, she must learn to deal with different emotions, side effects to the experimentation and awkward feelings for her friend, Wally. But can they still be friends?
1. Kidnapped

_**Hey, this is one of two chapters X-Jinxa-X wrote before I adopted her story. I have edited it and altered it a little so that my chapters will flow from it more clearly.**_

_**As stated a moments ago, this is X-Jinxa-X's story by the same name. For those who were fans of the story before I took it up, I hope I do it justice for you.**_

_**I don't own any Young Justice.**_

Gotham Academy got out at the same time every day at 3'o clock sharp. Today was, of course, no different from any other day. As soon as the small arrow hit the three, the bell rang and the classrooms emptied as students stampeded to the doors in an attempt to return home as quickly as possible.

"Hey, Dick."

Dick looked over his shoulder at his friend Barbara, watching her walk over before she started talking again. He stopped walking and so she could catch up to him easily and smiled at the red-head.

"Want to come over to my house? My mom is making brownies," she said making Dick's smile turn to one of sadness. Barbara's mom made the best brownies he had ever tasted and he would love to go over to her house, but he couldn't. He had commitments to attend to.

"Sorry, Barbara, I can't today. Mom needs me to help her with the wedding plans," he said, his blue eyes showing that he enjoyed helping his mother out.

Barbara smiled, happy that Dick had someone to call mom now. "It's okay, maybe next time," she promised, as a black car with the Wayne symbol on the front drove up to the curb "Your rides here." she pointed over at the car.

"Bye, Barb, see ya Monday," Dick said and then ran over to the car as Barbra walked over to her car which had pulled up.

"Hello, Master Richard," Alfred greeted as Dick climbed into the back of the car. "How was your day today?" he asked as he started driving away from the school in a leisurely fashion.

"Same old, same old," Dick replied, sounding bored. School was starting to annoy Dick because of how much of a pattern it was now. He went, he attended classes that gave him no challenge, and went home. There wasn't really anyway school could stump him after he had spent so long fighting villains. "How go's the wedding plans?" He asked changing the subject to something a little more important.

"Mistress Dinah is taking care of most of the planning," Alfred explained as he turned the car around a corner. "She would like your opinion on games for the teenagers who will be attending and the music choices," he said and Dick nodded his head, knowing the man could see him in the rear view mirror.

Bruce, the cold and tough Batman, had finally popped the question to Dinah, the sweet but just as tough Black Canary, a few months ago and Dick couldn't be happier. It was nice to see that Bruce was letting go of the past a bit more and opening his heart up to another person. Dick was thrilled that Dinah was going to be his step-mom, she was even happy with him calling her mom since she had practically been his mother for a year.

Dick was surprised with how much had changed in a year. M'gann was still dating Conner, but the same couldn't be said for Wally and Artemis. Just a few weeks after Dick turned fourteen they broke up. Wally told Dick that things were good with Artemis for a short while, but they fought too much and in the end decided to stay friends. At least after they broke up Wally and Artemis didn't fight all the time. Now they got along like friends and Wally was right, it was for the best. Wally had even gone back to flirting with nearly every woman in existence.

"Oh, Master Richard," Dick looked up at Alfred, "Master Bruce will be out for the night with Mistress Dinah. He said you could have Mr. West over if you wish. Should I call him when we arrive back at the mansion?" he asked.

"No. I'll call him and ask," Dick said pulling out his phone from his bag. He dialled Wally's phone number and waited for the speedster to pick up. Suddenly something hit the car on its right side and made it flip sideways and start rolling.

Dick dropped his phone in shock as the car rolled down the hill, his body being thrown against the seatbelt. It gained momentum steadily, making the teenager fear it would never stop. The rolling eventually did stop when it reached the bottom of the hill, landing on its side. Everything after that happened too quickly for Dick to even get over his dizziness from the car rolling down the hill.

He could hear Alfred's raspy breathing, but he was not moving, then he heard a voice.

_"__Hey Dick, what's up?" _

Dick didn't get the chance to tell Wally what just happened. The car door above him opened, bathing him in blinding light and someone wearing a black ninja like suit pulled him roughly out of the car before placing a white cloth over his mouth that smelled like chloroform.

_"__Hey... Dick? Dick… Hello? Dick?" _

Wally's panicked voice was the last thing Dick heard before his eyes fell heavily closed and a black abyss took him.


	2. Not the Same

_**Last chapter from X-Jinxa-X, edited again. Hope you like.**_

_Where am I?_

That was the first thing Dick thought when he woke up. He opened his eyes slowly to a bright blinding light coming from above him. Blue eyes watered as he blinked rapidly, trying to adjust to the onslaught of light. He sat up slowly on what he figured was a bed, though it was highly uncomfortable, and looked around the room.

It looked like a bunker cell from the civil war. Gray walls made of some kind of metal, a sink across from the bed with a toilet next to it and bright, white sealing lights that glared down at him. The only opening that Dick saw was a door, but it didn't have a handle. Most likely it was computer operated to let only whoever had kidnapped him in and most of all, out.

Dick lastly looked down at his body to see that his uniform was gone and replaced with what looked to be a hospital gown without the revealing gap in the back. This, he was thankful for.

"Where am I?" He asked himself looking around for any cameras. He knew, simply by common sense, that whoever had gone through all the trouble of kidnapping him would be keeping an eye on his actions. That meant he could not do to many things that would make him recognised as Robin.

"_**Good, you're awake." **_

Dick jumped as a voice came from the ceiling. He looked above him to see a speaker in the top corner. The door then opened from the outside and in walked two men wearing all black, their faces covered.

_**"Bring him to lab 3," **_The voice instructed before there was a click of the intercom turning off.

"Come on, kid," One of the men said and tried to grab Dick. Normally Dick wouldn't use Robin's moves, but someone kidnapped him and wanted him for something, so that pretty much screamed fight. As long as he didn't do anything overly obvious, then he could explain it away later if need be.

He jumped up and kicked one of the men in the chin before punching him in the stomach. Pain ran through Dick's hand and up his arm when he realized he hit something hard that wasn't the man's stomach. The men were either wearing metal armour under those dark getups or there was something highly wrong with them.

"Try that again," the other man said and Dick felt the nozzle of a gun on his neck. "And you die."

Dick saw no way of getting out now, unless he wanted to die, so he went with the men. One man walked in front of Dick leading him to the lab while the other man walked behind, the gun still present against his skin. The man in front opened the door to the lab and Dick almost threw up.

There were more kids around his age in there wearing nightgowns like his. They were strapped down to lab tables, their mouths covered to stop the screams of terror and pain their eyes projected. Dick also noticed a man with balding brown hair wearing a white lab coat in the back with a needle filled with some green glowing liquid.

"Hold him down," the man ordered in a calm, almost sinisterly intrigued voice.

The two men who had forced Dick down to the lab carried out the demand without a second thought. Dick put up another fight, but the men over powered him and forced him down onto an empty lab table.

"Don't worry, Mr. Grayson," The man in the lab coat said as he looked down at Dick "This will only hurt for a second." He then pushed the needle filled with the glowing green liquid into Dick's arm vain.

Dick's eyes widened as pain shot through his arm and up through his body. Holding in the scream of pain was impossible. Dick's screamed filled the lab, seeming to voice what the others could not but so dearly wished to. The screams were quickly silenced, however, when the man in the lab coat stuck another needle into his arm. Dick's eyes felt heavy as everything he saw started to blur into a messy puddle of colours.

"Sleep tight, Mr. Grayson," the man said before Dick blacked out again.

**At Mont. Justice**

"_**The search for Richard Grayson continues. Police now believe that he was targeted, but the reason remains unknown…"**_ Wally looked away from the women reporting Dick's disappearance on channel seven in Gotham City. Dick had been missing for three hours now and Wally didn't know what to do. He had heard what happened when Dick called him. The sounds were still fresh in his mind, seeming to be on a never ending loop. He couldn't help but feel that he should have ran to his friend's side, but a part of him knew that even if he had known where Dick was, he would still never have made it in time.

"Can we watch something else?" Wally asked his friends. He felt sick; the report reminded him of the sounds that had flooded his ears after the crash. The sounds of people screaming, police sirens on their way, a car screeching away, and Alfred yelling Dick's name.

"What do you think someone wanted him for?" M'gann asked not, understanding what was wrong with Wally. She didn't know much about Robin's secret identity, Richard Grayson, since he didn't tell anyone in Young Justice except Wally. All she knew now was that he was a missing student from Gotham Academy and his adopted father was a man called Bruce Wayne.

"He's the son of Bruce Wayne," Artemis started, making M'gann looked at her for more information. "Bruce Wayne is a billionaire in Gotham. He's really important because of his company," she went as Wally got up off the sofa and headed down to the training room. Talking about Dick and Bruce just made him feel guilty that he was useless right now.

Batman had called the team here an hour ago to inform them that he was going on a mission and that Robin was coming with him. The Speedster was the only one who knew that Batman had lied to them, but he wasn't going to tell the others that because he made a promise to keep Dick's identity a secret. He also knew that Batman was looking for Dick and wasn't going to stop until he was found.

"Wally." He looked over his shoulder to see Black Canary walking into the training room, looking worried. "You okay?" she asked and sounded concerned about him and how he was handling Dick's disappearance. She knew that it was hard on him because he knew Dick as Dick, not just Robin like the other members of Young Justice.

"I… I feel useless," Wally admitted not seeing a reason to lie to Black Canary. "Dick's missing and I can't do anything to help. I just feel guilty that I can't do anything to help," he confessed. Getting that out in the open finally got some weight on Wally's chest off but he knew it wouldn't all go away until his best friend was returned to him.

Black Canary smiled and put a hand on Wally's shoulder. "Everything will be okay, Kid. This is Dick, remember," She said trying to cheer Wally up. "I'll bring him back, I promise," she assured and Wally smiled thinking that Black Canary was right. She walked away and left Mont. Justice to get into Batman's aircraft, which was waiting right outside for her.

"Any luck on tracking him?" She asked climbing into the passenger's seat.

"Yeah," Batman said and pressed a button that pulled up a hologram map of a small group of islands "He's on this island outside of Florida. It's supposed to be empty." He took off, hiding his emotions the best he could as he did.

"Everything will be fine Bruce," Black Canary said taking Batman's hand, seeing right through him. He didn't say anything, but he squeezed her hand tightly before steering the aircraft into the right direction.

**Back with Dick**

Dick groaned as he woke up. His legs were heavy and most of his body was very stiff and sore making him think that he had been sleeping for hours. Dick forced himself up off the bed, causing his nerves to wake up painfully.

"Ugh…" He groaned as he walked towards the sink, feeling extremely thirsty. He turned on the sink and then turned his head sideways as he leaned down to get the water into his mouth. The cool water running down his throat woke all of Dick's body up. He splashed some of the water on his face before looking into the mirror to see what the man in the lab coat had done to him.

When Dick saw a girl who looked just like him looking back at him he screamed. A high pitch scream escaped his lips before he looked down at his chest to see that he was not a _he_ anymore.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU BASTARDS DO TO ME?" Dick screamed up at the speaker as a million questions ran through her head. _Why did they do this? What was the point of doing this? Where were the other kids I had seen in the lab?_

"_**I can't believe it worked. I've been trying for months but all other experiments failed. You are the first that has survived, Ms. Grayson," **_the man over the intercom said gleefully, making angry boil in Dick's blood. She screamed out of anger at the ceiling, which caused the ceiling to crack a little and the speaker to bust. _**"Perfect, I knew that it would work this time,"**_ the man went on from a different speaker as Dick covered her mouth in shock of what her scream had just done.

"What the hell did you sickos do to me?" She yelled at the ceiling, her voice becoming more high-pitched and slightly hysterical towards the end.

"_**Making you stronger, I'm making the perfect weapon," **_the man explained as though it was obvious as Dick glared at the speaker where the voice was coming from. _**"You belong to me now so get used to living here," **_he said before Dick screamed at the speaker again using her new power to break it.

After that Dick slumped down to the floor and started crying. "Daddy…" She cried wanting to go home and be with her family.

**With Batman and Black Canary**

"You sure that he's here?" Canary asked Batman as they looked around the island. It was a small island with only a few trees on it. It honestly looked deserted.

"Yeah…" Batman said, but he was clearly confused as he looked at the hologram map on his wrist band. "It says were right on top of him." He frowned as both heroes looked down at the sand.

Black Canary kneeled down as she dug into the sand until she hit something and revealed that there was something gray and metal underneath their feet.

"I think your tracker was right," She stated, brushing away more of the sand as Batman pulled a laser from his belt. He used it to cut through the metal and push the piece inside the cell underneath them. The two climbed inside and looked around to see a girl up against the wall.

"Dick?" Canary asked in shock when the girl looked up at them.

Her face looked just like Dick's, but there were tears staining her cheeks and her eyes were bright red. "Th-they… They did something to me…" She cried as Batman and Canary kneeled down to her. Batman pulled a medical needle out of his belt. Dick knew what that was for because Batman had to know if she was telling the truth so she held out her hand and Batman pressed then needle into her skin. When it had blood in it he pressed it into his wristband. A few moments later Dick's full name came up on the screen.

"Come on," Batman said picking Dick up off the ground "Let's go home."

"I'll call the league and get them here to check out this place," Black Canary promised as Batman crawled out of the hole and carried Dick to the aircraft on the beach.

"What did they do to you?" Batman asked as he set Dick down in the aircraft.

"He… He stuck me with a needle… and then said I was the perfect weapon…" She stammered as more tears started pouring from her eyes.

Batman sighed and hugged her tightly. "Everything is going to be okay, I promise," he said hoping that he was right.


	3. No Longer Dick

She stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She had a pale face, though that may have been from the shock, the same blue eyes as before, which was now framed with thick eyelashes, same cheek bones with a more feminine curve, and lastly, pink lips, formed into a frown. Richard sighed, dropping her head to look down at her newly formed chest.

"Go away!" she snapped, knowing it wouldn't work. The only thing she still had that was boyish was her hair, though even that could be styled in a feminine way. She sighed, taking one last look at her new feminine face, before walking into her bedroom, where she found her mother standing there beside her bed.

The blonde gave her a sad smile before opening her mouth to start talking. "I bought you some underwear, since I figured you didn't have any bra or underwears."

Richard timidly walked towards the brightly coloured bag sitting on the dark blue bed spread. She used one finger to pull out the offending objects one at a time. The underwear was made of soft, white material with a pink rose on the front. The bra was also white with pink lace on the top and a pink bow in the middle. She gazed helplessly at the objects, surprisingly not finding it ugly, though she wasn't a fan of the pink at all.

"Pink?" she asked in an emotion less voice before she shook her head. "Never mind. Hopefully I won't have to wear it for long." The look on her mother's face made her pause. "Right?"

Dinah sighed and sat down on the bed, her hands clasped in her lap. "I don't know if you've notified or not but your physical appearance isn't the only thing that's changed. They had a telepath with them and she changed your mental and psychological structure to that of a girls."

Richard frowned. "But, a large portion of that happens when you're being growing up, doesn't it? I still remember growing up as a boy."

"You are right," agreed Dinah before continuing, "but they placed this in your subconscious. You can already see it linguistically. You hedged your sentence." At the confused look on the teenagers face, she explained, "You know that the differences between boys and girls mainly occur in their socialisation at a young age yet you still added 'doesn't it', making it so that you weren't forcing the answer into me but allowing me to correct you even though you know you are right. It's common in female's speech. Also, you're standing like a girl."

Richard looked down to find she had her hip popped out to the side and her hand on said hip. She instantly scoffed and stood straight with her hands to her side.

"On the plus," the blonde started, "Martian Manhunter didn't find any other type of manipulation when he checked your mind, but he said that unless we can find the drug that changed you in the first place, he can't change you back mentally. The reason you were able to be changed in the first place was because your system was confused by the physical alteration. Dick, are you alright?"

"Don't call me that," Richard whispered, "Not until I have one." She stopped before turning back to face the bathroom. "I'm going to go have a shower."

"Don't forget these," Dinah reminded in a light voice, holding up the undergarments she had purchase.

Quickly, Richard snatched them from her mother to disappear into the bathroom. "And shave up your leg, not down," she yelled out with humour.

"Shut up, mum!" Richard yelled back.

It was after her shower that she realised something was wrong. None of her pants fit over her new hips, meaning she had nothing to wear on her bottom half besides the new underwear her mother bought her. After fiddling with the bra for 10 minutes to work out how to put it on properly, she threw on a button up shirt and wondered out to find her parents.

She found them talking to Martian Manhunter and Green Arrow in the Batcave. Normally they wouldn't be in the secret layer reserved for Batman and Robin but since Batman didn't want Robin leaving the house, and he refused to leave as well, it was necessary for them to get answers.

She received a sharp look from her father the moment she came wondering in. "You should put some clothing on."

"I would love to," she replied calmly. "Except none of my pants fit my new shape, so I can't."

"Oh, sorry," apologised Dinah instantly. "I should have thought of that, I'll go get you some clothing."

"No skirts or dresses. Definitely not ready for that one." When the blonde woman had disappeared, the once male teen turned to the three heroes. "As anyone told Wally I was okay? I can imagine him burning a hole in the floor from pacing."

"No, but I'm heading there next, I'll tell him," assured Green Arrow, trying not to look at Richard funny. He had heard of the change but only now had seen it. So far, only Batman, Black Canary and Martian Manhunter had seen Richard. "You look... nice."

"I'm not wearing any pants," reminded Richard flatly.

"Right."

An awkward silence ascended onto the small group before Richard spoke again. "I'm kinda tired, so, if anyone wants me I'll be in my room."

"Get some sleep," Batman ordered in a caring voice.

"Planning too."

Richard drudged back to her room, the exhaustion of the day's events finally getting to her. She pushed her door closed absentmindedly, not bothering to hear if it clicked shut. Once beside the bed, she threw herself onto the bed, only to give a yelp and jump into a sitting position, holding her chest. A string of swears erupted from her mouth. Her arm had tucked under her as she fell and had slammed into her chest causing pain to shoot through her. This didn't bode well, since she used to sleep like that all the time.

She pulled the collar of her shirt forward, looking down at her bust. "You're a hassle." Richard flopped back onto the bed, ignoring the itch to her legs. She had shaved them, as well as under her arms, and had to admit they looked pretty good, except that she had nicked her skin at the back of her heel, and behind her knee, and just about the ankle... she wasn't very good at shaving. In all she had about five bandages on, which she hoped that her dad and the other members of the Justice League had not noticed, though she knew her father probably did.

**Outside Wayne Manor**

The moment Green Arrow had told him that Richard had been found, he had run through the zeta tube to Gotham and all the way to the manor. He hadn't even stopped to ask the archer if he was alright, he just had to see him. Everyone could tell him that his best friend was perfectly fine and safe but until he saw him and talked to him, he was not going to believe it.

He jogged up the drive at human speed, not wanting anyone to see Kid Flash visiting the Wayne manor in civilian clothing, and knocked repeatedly on the hard wood door. His hand became a blur he knocked so quickly, but he refused to stop until he was answered or he broke the door.

Finally, Alfred opened the door with a polite smile. He greeted the red head before telling him he could find Richard in _the_ bedroom. Admittedly, Wally did find his choice of words odd, after all, he could just say _his_ bedroom, but he was focused on making sure his friend was safe, so he didn't stop to question him. The speedster ran up the stairs as fast as possible without burning the carpet. He found the door to Richard's bedroom open slightly, allowing him to enter without knocking.

The room was dark, considering it was mid-afternoon. The thick curtains were keeping light from the room and obscuring the figure lying on the bed. He went over, figuring it was Richard, only to be slightly confused. The figure was of a small build like Richard, and had dark hair, but if their legs were anything to go off of, which were highly visible since they weren't wearing any pants, they were not his male friend, Dick.

He reached down and shook the girl's shoulder, hoping she could help him find Dick. Next minute, her eyes snapped open and she tackled him to the ground, pinning him there whilst she straddled his hips. Once she had studied his surprised face though, she gasped.

"Wally, I'm sorry, you surprised me." She released the pressure she had been placing on his shoulders with her palms.

Instantly, Wally slipped into his usual behaviour around woman, his hands resting just above her knees. "That's alright, beautiful, I always surprise women."

She cocked her head to the side in confusion before a look of horror melted over her face and she jumped up, climbing onto the bed so she was facing him on her knees. "No! No, no, no!" She pointed at him in accusation. "No, I am not beautiful! You do _not_ hit on me! I'm your friend, the one who is called by another name for the appendage she ones had."

"Dick!" gasped Wally, his eyes wide.

"That's the one!"

Wally stared at Richard in shock, studying her face. "H...how?"

"The kidnapping," started Richard with a sigh, sitting back as she explained the whole story. By the end of it, Wally was stunned into silence. "You going to be okay?"

"Shouldn't I ask you that?" Wally yelped. He breathed, taking it all in before looking at Richard's face. "Do you still like video games and the usual?"

"Of course." Richard started shifting uncomfortably.

"What's wrong?" Wally asked, instantly beside her.

"Need to use the bathroom," she admitted quietly. "I'm putting it off."

The speedster thought for a moment before falling back, laughing hard enough he fell off the bed. "You have to sit down!" he howled.

"Shut up," Richard grumbled, walking towards the bathroom. "At least I didn't hit on a dude."

Wally snapped up, suddenly serious. "Dude, you are no longer a dude." An empty toilet roll flew out of the bathroom and hit him in the forehead before the door closed sharply.

_**I hope you like the first all o0Black-Sand0o chapter of this story, as well as the lovely humour between Wally and Richard.**_


	4. Instinct

She had finally been allowed into the Watchtower, without having to fight her mentor to save him from brain washing. Unfortunately, the only reason she was allowed to the Headquarters, the place she had been dreaming of, was because she was being babysat. Batman had to go on a mission and didn't want to leave her in the manor, especially since he had told the public that she was back. He told them that Batman had tracked down the psycho who was kidnapping children, Richard being the only surviving victim, and that she was recovering. He didn't mention the sex change encase they were able to change she back.

At that moment she was in the training room with Flash and Black Canary. Her mother was just watching as well as giving her pointers with her scream. She was having no luck. Black Canary kept telling her that her throat was a muscle she had to train, like she was singing. Richard reminded her that she couldn't sing to save her life.

Flash had upped his game, realising that he couldn't go easy on the fourteen year old when her fist collided painfully with his chin. She was frustrated with the situation she found herself in and sparring seemed like the best way to release her tension. He threw a punch at her in high speed, only for her to dodge it instantly and turn, grabbing his wrist and forcing him to keep it extended as she leant forward, bringing her leg up behind her to kick Flash in the face.

As he fumbled back from the impact, she let him go, spinning and slamming her leg into his stomach, forcing him to the ground.

"I give," he yelped, holding his side.

Richard stopped in shock, her fists still clenched, breathing heavily. She had no idea how she just did that. She could see his moves, she could feel her body humming to respond, to protect her, to defeat him. She wanted to win, but luckily, her conscience pulled her back from hurting him too severely. Once realising how close she came to hurting him she stumbled back, looking frightened.

"What's wrong, Rickie?" Black Canary asked, running to her side as she used her new, more girly nickname.

"I... could have hurt him!" She turned her wide, blue eyes on her mother. "I would have hurt him!" It became hurt to breath, like something was squeezing her ribs, threatening to break them. "What did they do to me?" As tears pooled in her eyes she stepped back, away from the two heroes, before turning and running. She ignored them calling out to her and instead ran until she found a storage room to hide in. Sitting on the floor, Richard pulled her knees up to her chest and dropped her head, hoping to disappear.

The feeling scared her. What if she didn't realise? What if she hadn't gained control of herself? She didn't want to hurt her friends and family, but it looked like a possibility. Her instincts where heightened, which was deadly, since as a hero she already had honed her instincts to be as sharp as humanly possible. All these thoughts made her start hyperventilating again.

Eventually, Black Canary found her. She walked into the store room, closing the door behind her and turning on the light. Sitting on a bucket, she turned another upside down and tapped the top, indicating for Richard to sit on it. The hollow noise of the tap echoed through the room as Richard bit her lip to muffle her cry. Finally, she lifted her head and lifted herself onto the bucket, her head down.

The older hero waited for Richard to start talking, which she finally did with a reluctant voice. "I almost killed him."

Black Canary placed her hand on the younger girl's shoulder only to have her shrug it off. "Rickie, sweetheart, you can control this, I promise. It's just something you have to get used to and to practice."

Richard raised her teary eyes to her mother. "What if I can't? What if I risk hurting someone?"

"I never have to worry about that, and never do you," assured Black Canary, a small smile spreading across her face. "I know you won't hurt someone, you're too kind, Richard."

After some time, Richard calmed and looked up at her mother. "Do you think it's odd?"

"Do I think what's odd?" Black Canary pushed a short lock of the younger girl's hair behind her ear, only for it to flick forward again. The blonde frowned; seeming to wish the hair was longer.

"That I haven't changed my name from Richard?" clarified the acrobat. "It's not exactly a girly name."

The older hero tilted her head, seeming to consider this for a moment. "I just thought you weren't changing until you were certain you were stuck like this."

Richard sighed, shaking her head. "No, I just don't want to lose everything. That madman has taken my gender, a couple of weeks of my life, my vocal cords, apparently my instincts, and my superhero status. I just want to have something that is mine, that can't be changed."

"You superhero status?" yelped Black Canary.

"Well, yeah," Richard started as though it was obvious. "I highly doubt the public would understand if Robin spontaneously turned into a girl, and when they find out that Richard Grayson has also turned into a girl, I think they will work it out. I thought that I might be able to hide the fact, even from the team, until I get turned back, but what if I can't be turned back into a boy?"

"Well then, you change your identity and become a female hero," explained Black Canary like it was that simple. "If you want, you can also be my sidekick."

Richard couldn't hold in his laughter. "No offence, mum, but I'm kind of used to dad's way and I think dad would kill us both if you tried to put me in a uniform like yours."

"You're probably right there." Black Canary stood and held out her hand for Richard to take. "Come on, we have to train you up a bit more."

**Batcave**

He stared at the information in front of him, still refusing to fully comprehend it. It had been there, flashed up on the giant computer for a whole fifteen minutes and still he didn't believe it. How was he meant to tell Richard? How was he meant to tell himself? His little boy, his little Robin, was gone. Lost forever into a female form.

Bryce Wayne didn't know how to raise a girl, let alone a teenage one, and Batman didn't want a female sidekick. What if she was hurt? What if some lowlife of Gotham wanted to... to... The thought made him sick, he couldn't even finish it.

With a sigh, he minimised the report and instead contacted the Watchtower, telling Flash, who answered, to bring Richard back. Within minutes he was looking into the blue eyes of his child. Boy or girl that did not change, Richard was his child, his heir. He pulled back his cowl and opened his mouth to speak but found he couldn't. He didn't know how Richard would react. Would he be alright with it, or devastated? Would he feel that Batman let him down?

"You can't change me back, can you?" Richard guessed, his voice even and calm.

"No," Batman grumbled, bile rising in his throat at the thought of what would happen if they tried. "I've ran every test, questioned the doctor who did this countless times, it all equals to the same result. You would die if you were to undergo the transformation again. It was a miracle you survived the first time."

Richard nodded his head, seeming to be in silent contemplation. "I have been thinking. Robin can't just disappear, and if Robin was to turn into a girl, the public may put two and two together and realise that the newly female Richard Grayson and newly female Robin look similar. So, I thought, perhaps I could hide the change, as Robin, until I've finished my training with you, then I could become a new superhero... or superheroine... No, I hate that. It sounds like a super drug."

Batman gave a chuckle, enjoying the familiar nature of Richard butchering the English language. He had to admit that he had been so focused on finding out if they could change Richard back that he never thought of what to do if they could not. He was thankful one of them had. "Do you want to tell the team?"

"No," yelped Richard before taking a breath. "It was weird enough with Wally... HE HIT ON ME! It was disturbing. I just want to get used to it myself before springing it on everyone else. And can you pull me out of school, and just try not to tell the public. I know I put up a stink about homeschooling before but it now seems smarter."

"Fair enough. I can just tell everyone that you are recovering and that you send your condolences to the families who lost children."

"Send flowers too," added Richard, thinking of all the people who died because of that madman's plans.

"Already done," assured Batman before he went silent for a moment. "Are you going to change your name?"

"Yeah, when I stop being Robin, I'll come up with a different hero name."

"No, I meant actual name. Richard is not exactly girly."

Richard snorted, shaking her head. "It's the 21st century, people can get over it. Mum seems to like calling me Rickie, anyway."

Batman nodded before smiling. "I hope you still like basketball."

"Of course," scoffed the girl. "And I bet I can still kick your butt."

The two gave each other a challenging look before Batman dashed off to get changed and Richard went to find the basketball.


	5. Binds that Hids Us

She squirmed at the tight feel of the binds wrapped around her chest. Scrutinizing her appearance, she couldn't find anything out of the ordinary if she looked at her reflection like someone on the team might. If she allowed in the fact that she 'knew' of her change, then she could see the softer curve to her jaw, the thickness to her eyelashes and delicate nature of her lips.

The uniform had to be altered as well, since she couldn't fit into the old one. This one was specially designed to hide the curve of her hip, the presence of the binds and the narrowing of her shoulders. The uniform looked exactly the same as always, as though she had never been changed. The team would never notice the fact that her gender had changed since they last saw her.

Realising that she couldn't do anything more to make herself look male, she turned away from the mirror and made her way out of the changing room, into the depths of the cave. Her dad looked up from the computer screen in front of him, surveying her appearance.

"How do I look?" Robin asked, realising how girly it sounded and deciding to make a joke. "And if you say my ass looks fat I'll kill you."

"Boyish," Batman replied with a smirk. "Have fun with the team. You lot won't have missions for at least a week but don't tell them that."

"It's because of me, isn't it?" Robin asked, rolling her eyes. When her father just stared at her she sighed, knowing that he was just being careful for everyone's sake. "Fine. See ya." She walked to the zeta tubes and dialled up Mt Justice before walking through.

The machine announced her arrival on the other side as she stepped out. She was greeted by the sight of the rest of the team training with Black Canary. The blonde smiled at her before turning back to observe the fight between Artemis and Aqualad. Robin had only a moment to smile back before a red and yellow blur collided into her, turning her around. When the room stopped spinning she found that she had her back to the group and was looking at Kid Flash, whose hands were on her shoulders.

"Robin, you're back," he said enthusiastically, sweeping his eyes over Robin's form.

It only took a second for her to realise no one had told him it was a hopeless cause to turn her back. She honestly didn't know if anyone besides her and Batman knew that she was stuck as a girl for the rest of her life. They couldn't talk about it here though, with everyone listening, so she gave him a reassuring smile and mouthed 'talk later'.

The red head nodded, turning Robin around and slinging an arm over her shoulders, leading her over to the team and her mum. She watched as Aqualad was able to win over Artemis before Robin was to verse Superboy. Although he had super strength on his side, she had agility and more combat training. Unfortunately she had to make sure she didn't let herself become carried away.

She dodged his swing, kicking him in the ribs. He caught his balance and charged at her, only for her to flip over him and kick backwards into Superboy's back. He fell on all fours, only to jump up before the computer recognised that he had fallen. Robin swung at him, only to for him to grab her wrist, holding on tight enough for her to wince. She felt her instincts kicking in and without thinking grabbed on to Superboy's arm whilst he still held her wrist, and quickly swung up, grabbing the clone's neck with her legs, dropping him to the ground whilst keeping her legs around him. She let him go once the computer announced that she had won, swinging her legs around and quickly jumping to her feet.

Connor rose more slowly, rubbing his neck as he did so. He stared at her, making her squirm, thinking he could see through her disguise. "Nice moves," he finally said. "Where'd you learn that?"

"Oh, just something I picked up." She shrugged, trying to pass it off casually.

Her mother, knowing what had happened, covered for her. "Nice to see you've perfected the move. That's the one you've been practicing for the last couple of weeks, right?"

"Yeah," muttered Robin.

Since everyone had already had a sparring match, and Black Canary didn't want Robin to be fighting again, they finished training and were allowed to do what they wanted. Since Robin hadn't broken a sweat, and also didn't want to have to rebind her chest, she didn't go for a shower like the rest of them. Instead, she sat down in front of the television and flipped through the channels, waiting for her friends to come back out.

One by one they trickled into the living room, M'gann going into the kitchen, Superboy sitting on the lounge near Robin, Artemis sitting on the floor, cleaning her arrows and Aqualad sitting on an arm chair, reading a book. Wally was the last to appear in civilian clothing. When he did, his red hair still wet, he ran over to Robin, grabbing her hand and pulling her out of her seat with enough force to send her careening into his chest, a very girly but soft yelp escaping her lips. Wally shook with laugher, not giving her a chance to recover before he pulled her out of the room, running out of the mountain. They stopped on the beach that surrounded the mountain, Robin falling forward out of shock. Luckily Wally caught her like he always did when his sudden stops sent her flying. He wrapped his arm around her, his hand on her chest to pull her back onto her feet.

It only took her a moment to realize where Wally's hand was and slap it away with an annoyed glare. "Get your hand off of me."

Wally retracted his hand, looking confused. He had caught his friend like that many times and never been scolded before. He frowned at Robin for a moment, who was blushing and had crossed her arms over her chest. A look of comprehension appeared on the red head's face as he realized what the problem was. A blush appeared on his own face as he cleared his throat, trying to break the awkward air between them.

"I'm guessing this means you haven't been turned back?" he asked, knowing the answer but needing confirmation.

Robin shook her head and took her mask off, knowing there was no surveillance cameras around. "No, dad worked out that if they tried, I would definitely die. It's a miracle I survived in the first place. My training to become Robin made me have a higher tolerance to pain and the fact that I've always been a small build helped. At least, that's dad's theory. But no matter what, my body wouldn't be bake to handle the transformation twice."

Wally dropped down into the sand with a disbelieving look on his face, ignoring the puff of sand that rose when he landed. "So what are you going to do?"

Robin sat down more gracefully next to her friend. "Richard Grayson has been pulled out of school, to recover and to start home school, nothing has changed for Robin though. The team will not be told, at least not yet, and eventually, Robin is going to retire and a new, female superhero will appear. Mums trying to talk me into being her sidekick, but dad doesn't like that idea. One thing he told me is that when I become a different hero, no skimpy outfits. Before you ask, my name is going to stay Richard, but my nickname, according to mum, is now Ricky."

Wally sighed, running his fingers through his hair, accidently flicking some water at Robin. "Is there anything else I should know?"

Robin hesitated, but at her friend's worried gaze she opened her mouth. "I have killer instincts."

"Don't we all?" chuckled Wally.

"No, I mean..." Robin paused, thinking of the best way to describe it. "The move I pulled on Connor. I didn't think about it, I just did it. I almost killed Flash when he and mum were training with me to keep me busy. It seems as though the experiment was to release the human's natural animalistic instincts. I think that's why they were changing the gender of the people. To confuse the body and make it more accessible. Girls also naturally have a higher vocal pitch, allowing me to scream like mum."

"Can you control it?"

Robin thought over the question before answering in a soft voice. "I didn't kill Connor. I'm going to have to practice, but I think I can. Dad's taught me excellent control after all."

Wally sat in silence for some time before finally speaking. "Are you ever going to tell the team?"

"Eventually I'll probably have to but I want to get over the shock myself and get used to it all before getting bombarded with questions." Robin laid back into the sand, putting her hands behind her head as a form of pillow. "What did I miss whilst I was gone?"

Wally turned so he was facing Robin, sitting cross legged. "Not much. Connor has finally discovered cartoons, so he doesn't just watch static, Artemis tried to shoot Zatanna with an arrow when she started teasing her about a boy she likes, M'gann tried to cook a soufflé but Wolf tackled Connor, wanting to play. They slammed into every bench, making the mixing bowl, pots and pans all fall to the ground. Needless to say, the soufflé collapses and M'gann was so angry."

"You still ate it though, didn't you?" Robin asked with a grin.

"Of course!" exclaimed Wally, like it was obvious. "Tasted good too."

Robin just laughed at him before his sudden serious expression made her stop. "What? Did it make you sick?"

"No, I'm just glad you're all right. I was worried and no one here knew it was you. They were treating it like any other kidnapping of people. They didn't understand that it was you."

"But I'm okay now," assured Robin, "a little different, but perfectly healthy."

_**Sorry for the long wait but I was finishing up my first year of my Education Degree. Hope you like and R and R**_


	6. Secrets and Confusions

_**Sorry if this chapter is a little weird but it's more about how Richard can later fall for a guy when he seemed to be a straight guy before the change. Oh, and see if you can guess which anime it mentions. If you know it, you'll love the jokes, and if you don't then you should watch it cause it's awesome.**_

Richard shifted in her seat, ending up at an unusual angle. Her legs were up on the head rest of the couch, with her body draped on the seat. At that angle, she could still see the television where the show she and Alfred both liked was playing. The older man did not say anything about her choice in clothing, knowing she still had limited attire. She wore a green tank top and short, yellow striped boxer shorts in a cotton material. She knew her father wouldn't appreciate her showing so much of her legs, but she was not planning to go outside in it.

She laughed, nudging Alfred's shoulder with her foot. She then nodded to the butler on the anime, who was throwing a dog around the size of a building to train him. "Is that how you trained Ace?"

Alfred gave her a small smile. "Thankfully Ace was a puppy when we got him, so he was easier to manage."

"No crashing into buildings and making giant holes in the ground?" Richard asked seriously.

"_He_ may be allowed to cause a scene but a bat butler prides himself on _not_ causing one." As Richard laughed and nodded they heard a knock on the door, making Alfred sigh. "It is probably yet another reporter trying to get a picture of you hurt and injured. Stay here and I'll get them to leave."

Richard paused the foreign cartoon as the butler got up off the lounge. Shortly after she heard Alfred yelp something, and then the sound of pounding footsteps. She looked over to see wide brown eyes staring at her in shock, taking note of her feminine form. "Barbara!" she yelped, flipping her legs over herself so that she could stand on her feet. She watched the red head run back towards the entrance, but Richard jumped over the coffee table and took chase. She caught her friend in the foyer where Alfred stood, looking guilty.

"I am sorry, Miss Richard, she ran passed me the moment I opened the door," Alfred said, standing in front of the closed door so Barbara couldn't make a quick escape if she got out of the dark haired girl's grip.

"It's alright, Alfred, you're simply not one hell of a butler," Richard joked before turning to her friend. " Barbs, let me explain."

"What's there to explain? You weren't sick, you just went and got a sex change and left me worried," Barbara muttered in a slightly hysterical voice.

"No, Barbs, this is what happened when I was kidnapped. They were trying to create weapons for themselves by making us use our animal instincts and such. To do that, they needed to change our genders, otherwise we wouldn't release that side of us. I'm sure they had other reasons for it too, but I don't know them." She failed to mention the Canary Cry she could now do, since she didn't need to freak Barbara out more. "Come on, come into the living room and let me explain properly."

The red head slowly nodded, letting Richard lead her into the other room, placing the tray she held on the table. "My mum made you brownies."

"Nice." Richard was tempted to take the foil off and eat one but instead turned to Barbara and explained everything, leaving out the canary cry and the fact that Batman and Black Canary were her parents. She had a feeling the red head knew Richard was Robin but she could not be sure. For her friend's sake she also glossed over how many others actually died. "They've looked into it, but there is no way to change me back. Please don't tell anyone, I am not ready for all that crap yet."

Barbara was quiet as she thought through the information Richard had told her. "But you're still Richard, right? You're still my Richard?"

"Course, we've been best friends for ages," she promised, pressing into the back of the lounge comfortably. "Hey, do you want to watch this with Alfred and I?" She held up the case for the show they were watching, making Barbara laugh.

"So that's why you were lying weirdly. You always do that when you're watching tv." She gave a laugh as Richard chuckled. Next moment, the red head sobered up. "Richard?" When the once male looked over at her, she leant forward.

Richard jumped back, shocked and confused. "What... what are you doing?"

"Well, you're still Richard," Barbara started to explain. "I still see you as Richard Grayson and well I've always liked you and I figured, before I started seeing you as a girl, I'd take my chance to show it."

Richard could understand that, and in any other situation, he probably would have just received the kiss and nothing else, like he did when Zatanna, but it just seemed to be awkward. "Barbs," Richard sighed, "I just can't."

"So they completely turned you into a girl then, a straight girl?"

"I don't think so," Richard started, looking contemplative and confused, which made an interesting combanation. "I've always been a bit of an asexual, and never really understood the difference between males and females besides the obvious. Something about growing up in the circus where woman can have beards and men can wear makeup. Its just, I don't know. I'm confused enough as it is." She paused, looking at her friend. "Are you mad?"

"No, I understand. Hey, at least now I have someone to go shopping with," Barbara said brightly.

"Yeah, good luck with that," Richard laughed.

"I should get going. I told my mum I wouldn't be long." Barbara stood, letting Richard walk her to the door. "And don't worry, I wont tell anyone."

**One week later**

Robin rolled her eyes at Wally as he pressed his chest painfully into her shoulder, trying to look at the new gadgets on her wrist computer. It was a common occurrence, so she was used to it, but he had changed his deodorant and the smell was clogging her nose, making her head spin. The smell was rich and smooth, something she liked but having it so close for such a long period was getting to her.

She shifted so that Wally wasn't hurting her shoulder, and instead she had her back to him, allowing him to look over her shoulder. The system on her wrist computer had been dramatically upgraded as well as a handful of games added, two things that fascinated the red head greatly. The moment she had sat on the lounge, Wally had came to hover over her, wanting to test out the gadget.

Finally, when Wally leant forward even further, bringing a heavy wave of his deodorant with him, Robin had enough. She turned, putting her hand on Wally's chest, stopping him from falling off the armrest and onto her. "Will you stop?" she asked. "You keep moving closer and your deodorant is starting to make me dizzy."

"You don't like it?" the red head asked, sniffing his shirt.

"No, there's just too much of it."

Wally nodded. "Yeah, that's why I shouldn't put deodorant on in super speed. I always over do it."

"Will you two shut up for a minute?" Artemis snapped, turning the volume up on the TV. She did a double take of the two when she looked over to shoot them a hard look.

Robin frowned in confusion before noticing her hand was still on Wally's chest and snapped it back before turning to the TV, a picture of herself catching her eye. Artemis was watching a news report about the children that went missing. They had just revealed that there was more evidence of what happened to them all, and what Richard Grayson's condition might be.

"_Now, you are the doctor who performed the autopsies on the victims?" the reporter asked the woman beside him._

"_Yes," the woman confirmed, playing with her cuticles. "Seven other morticians and I performed the autopsies on all thirty-two children. Of course they were not all from Gotham so there were morticians from other cities at the request of the majors of the cities the victims came from. We all noticed that there was one common element to all the autopsies."_

"_Is this particular thing a marking or symbol of the man who did this?" the reporter asked, trying to ease the answer out of the woman._

Wally looked at Robin with wide eyes as Robin's heart beat painfully against her ribs. She was thankful Superboy had taken Wolf for a walk or he would have surely commented on the tempo it was creating.

_The woman took a deep breath. "Not quite. It was clear that the police were not lying when they said the man experimented on the children, but we were astounded by what we found. Each and every body we examined was in various states of transforming into the opposite gender."_

_There was silence between the two as the reporter tried to progress the information. "Are you trying to tell me that this scientist, as he calls himself, kidnapped thirty-three children, Richard Grayson being the only survivor, to give them sex changes? How would they have died from that? People do get sex changes in society and they live."_

"_Well it's not the same," the mortician started calmly. "Those operations are changing the sex organ, and hormones, so that the person may grow breasts or facial hair, depending on which way they changed. This is completely different. A number of the boys we examined had uterus's, and girls had an extra rib or an Adam's apple. With one child we had to triple check we had the right name for them for they had completely been transformed into a male at a cellular level. These children died because they and their bodies could not handle the pain of the transformations. Even the mapping of their brains looked different so that the more primal side, and instinctive side were predominant."_

"_Yet Richard Grayson is alive," the reporter reminded. "He was the last child to be taken, and the most public kidnapping, since the scientist made it seem as though the rest had ran away. Is it possible he had no chance to experiment on Richard?"_

_The mortician contemplated the answer before opening her mouth. "It's hard to say. If he did undergo the same torture as the others then it is a miracle he is alive, but the transformation would have had to be complete for him to live. That is to say, Richard would no longer be a boy if the scientist had a chance to experiment on him."_

"_That could be why he was pulled from school by his guardian Bruce Wayne, he doesn't want Richard to be questioned over the change until he, or she, is ready."_

As the news report came to a close, Artemis turned the television down, turning to Robin. "It's weird to think, hey? Someone so well known in our city went through something like that. It wouldn't be easy, adjusting to it all. Though he seemed like a pretty easy going kid, for a rich guy."

Robin only nodded her face white under her mask, though she could easily play it off as worry for one of Gotham's own.

"Well," Wally started, trying to draw the blonde's attention away from Robin with his usual joking behaviour. "If he's an asexual like Robin, he will handle it a bit better than most guys."

"You're asexual?" Artemis asked in shock, making Robin roll her eyes at Wally's failure. "But you kissed Zatanna, and you flirted with her."

"She kissed me," Robin explained, "And I thought she was alright. I'm not completely asexual, Wally just liked to joke. I just don't care at all about looks, just personality. And surprisingly I'm not kidding."


	7. Magic

There was a demand to know what had happened to Richard Grayson. Honestly, Richard had never been so glad she had been adopted by a political giant as she was when he father made an announcement that she was to be left alone, that she had exerianced a great horror and that, yes, Richard was now a female. He had made it very clear that no one was to bother Richard, something Commitionor Gordan stood by. Commitionor Gordan even went to far as to say that when Batman found her and the dead victims that he had said she needed rest and was not to be disturbed. That seemed to completely convince the reporters and was probably a direct quote.

Richard had yet to go outside, unless she was being Robin, but she knew the reporters were still in waiting. Once she was out of the safety of her father's house they saw her as fair game. To tell the truth, she was fearful of going out side as the female Richard. She had no idea how people were going to react. It was this fear that made her spend more time with Wally and talking to Barbara on the phone. Richard was starting to dislike spending time with the team or her father. The binds she had to wear in front of the team were uncomfortable, and made it hard to breath and her father was always giving her a look filled with guilt, as though it was his fault that she was now a female.

Around Wally, Richard didn't have to hide the transformation and the red-head had accepted it rather quickly. He hadn't hit on her since the first time either, something Richard was rather thankful for. It was an odd thought to know that both of her red-haired, best friends had made a move on her since the transformation. Truthfully, part of her found Wally's advances less disturbing, perhaps because he had no clue who it was he was talking to, all he knew was that a girl was sitting on him. Given the circumstances, Richard should be impressed that he didn't assume he was being attacked.

Richard walked out of the bathroom, having changed out of the civies she saved for Robin, and into clothing Richard would wear. The binds were finally off, after a long day of training, allowing her to relax. She still hadn't braved the shopping world yet so she wore the dark pants and white tank top her mother bought her, with one of her blue button up tops open over the white cloth. It comforted her to wear the button up, an element of her life from before her change that could co-operate with her new form.

Wally was sitting on his couch, flicking through the channels to find something to watch. He had became more comfortable around Richard after some time. When he had first seen Richard wearing pants that actually fit and a shirt that didn't hide the fact that she was now female, he had stared, trying to match this new image to the other images he had of his best friend. All it took for him to become at ease was a video game and three pizzas, two for him and one for Richard. The way she ate pizza as she beat him with a few well placed cheat codes was enough to convince him that this girl was his best friend still. Now, he didn't react to Richard as she sat down beside him, watching as he paused on a channel to evaluate the show on it.

"Anything good?" Richard asked, stealing some chips from the bag in Wally's hand.

"Not yet," he grumbled in disappointment, switching to the next channel.

Richard shoved a handful of chips into her mouth, turning her eyes onto the television. Once she took in the image, she choked on the snack, bits of fried potato flying out of her mouth. Her friend wacked her on the back in an attempt to help her, though it made things worse.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Richard choked out between hacking coughs. The image on the television had changed, making Richard wonder if she had imagined the feeling she had felt. Surely if the feeling was real, it wasn't triggered by the image she had seen on the television.

"I'll get you a drink," Wally said helpfully, getting up and going into the kitchen. He was back in seconds with a glass of water that Richard gulped down. "You going to be okay?"

Richard nodded, still shooting glances at the tv. She mentally shook herself, pushing away the thoughts of the emotions she had felt.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They hadn't had a mission for over a week. They had been on a handful since Robin had been turned into a female, unbeknown to all but one team mate, but for over a week now, there simply had been no missions for them to go on. Richard had been using the time to train with her father, to try and gain control of her instincts, though so far she wasn't having much improvement. The other heroes on the team were not seeing a light side to the situation. They all seemed bored and as though they were losing energy from just sitting around.

Kid Flash was easily the worst though. He needed to run, something Richard knew. If he didn't, his muscles would often tense and harden, much like someone the day after a hard workout, except that his got worse each day. He had tried running around the mountain and the beach, but after going on so many missions, for so long, it wasn't enough. When they had had the week off after Richard's return, he had worked with The Flash, but even he was having a shortage of missions at the moment.

With every movement, he gave a yelp or flinch of pain making Richard worry about him. There seemed to be nothing they could do to help him. Aqualad had suggested that he should go for a swim, which resulted in him almost drowning because he couldn't move fluently, and then Artemis suggested a warm bath, which, after persisting from the others, he did. That one worked for a few hours but the pain started again.

Eventually, Richard had enough of seeing her friend in pain and got up from the couch and silently grabbed Wally's hand, pulling him up from his seat.

"What are you doing?" he asked in a miserable voice.

"The only thing that might help," she admitted before crossing her arms and looking away from her friend. "Take off your shirt and lie on the ground on your stomach."

"What?!" the red-head yelped, blushing slightly. His look of disbelief was mirrored on Zatanna's face, who had, until that point, been reading one of her father's books.

"Look," Richard snapped, feeling embarrassed, "If you want to stay in pain than fine, I won't help you!"

When she turned to storm off, Wally grabbed her hand, stopping her. "No, please help!" once he knew his friend wasn't going to just leave, he let go of her and pulled his shirt off, dropping it on the floor before lying down.

Richard was left speechless for a moment, not expecting her friend to strip down so readily in front of her. Ignoring the pressure she felt in her stomach, and the way Zatanna was eyeing red head's body from over the top of her book, she knelt down beside Wally and started running her hands over his back. At first, Wally couldn't seem to relax under her touch and was instead shifting and fidgeting.

"Stop moving," she scolded as Artemis and Superboy entered the room. When Wally failed to follow instructions, she swung a leg over his body, straddling his lower back. This angle also allowed her to massage her friend's sore muscles much more easily.

"What are you doing?" Artemis asked, eyeing them suspiciously.

"Trying to help him," explained Richard, focusing on what she was doing.

"And it's working," Wally muttered, his arms under his head like a pillow. He seemed to have been lulled into a drowsy state.

Richard could feel the well-tone muscles relax under her touch, unknotting themselves with her guidance. She had thought it would work from the moment they realized what was wrong with Wally, but had been hesitant to try. The thought of running her hands over her friend's body was uncomfortable. Oddly enough, she felt that she would be more comfortable with the act if she was still in her male body.

The form below her gave a soft moan, his eyes closed and a look of relief and pleasure on his face. "I am going to have to remember you can do this," he mumbled, his breathing soft. "This is amazing!"

"You can't expect this all the time." Richard cleared her throat, kneading her palms into Wally's back, just under the shoulder blades and blushing when it triggered a moan from her friend.

"Where'd you learn that?" Superboy asked out of curiosity, watching the two. "Did Batman teach you how to do that?"

Richard gave a short laugh, which covered a calm sigh from Wally. "No, he didn't teach me this, it's just something I learnt on my own. I used to get really sore after training so I learnt how to relieve muscles. Never done it to someone else before, though."

A particularly hard press to the speedster's lower back forced a mixture of a groan and a moan to leave his lips, making Richard blush darker with surprise. As she had stated, she had never given anyone else a massage before, making her wonder if these were common noises for someone to make. The way Artemis raised an eyebrow made Richard contemplate that perhaps they were at least slightly unusual.

"Is it working?" she asked, hoping the embarrassment wasn't all for nothing.

Wally opened his eyes and turned his head slightly so he had a better view of his friend from over his shoulder. He gave her a pleased smile, his eyes half closed. "Yeah, this is exactly what I needed. At this rate I might start believing magic is real 'cause that is the only way I can describe this."

Richard's fingers melded into Wally's soft skin, pressing hard muscles until they gave way. Even at his most relaxed his muscles were still tone from years of training. The 'boy' wonder couldn't help but feel she shouldn't be realizing this, or the fact that Wally was easily turning into a half naked puddle beneath her. These facts were making Richard start to wonder how much of her had actually been changed without her realization.

_**Here you go, the latest chapter of Still Friends. I've been trying to get this chapter right, to portray a certain point.**_


	8. Ruffles and Answers

_**I hope you really like this chapter cause I have been working on this particular one since I got the story off of X-Jinxa-X. It one of the mother of all chapters for this story so I really, really hope I did it justice. I even made my fiancée read it but his not that into Young Justice and he hasn't read the story at all so he didn't get some of the references. Please R and R, it'll stop me from worrying so much.**_

She had finally decided to brave the outside world after having her mother harass her to do so for weeks. Even though she had gained the courage to do that, she was not going to let people know she was Richard Grayson, instead she was taking Alfred's suggestion to call herself Dani Pennyworth, so that she was more comfortable. It gave her slight comfort but she was still dreading the outing.

She was dreading it so much that she found herself hiding in her room, a pillow over her face as though it was the perfect camouflage. No matter what she did, she couldn't seem to hide the fact that she was the now female Richard instead of some non-existent Dani. Even through her wallowing she could still hear someone open her bedroom door and walk in. The sound of heels clicking let her know it was her mother.

"Rickie," her mother said as she walked into the room and took the pillow off her daughter's face, dropping it on the bed beside her. "You can't chicken out now." She grabbed Richard's hand and pulled her into a sitting position, Richard neither helping nor harboring her from doing so.

"I don't want to go," Richard mumbled, looking at her mother sadly, fiddling with the pillow. "I can't fool anyone that I'm not Richard and I don't want to be hounded by people. I'm sick of this! Why can't everything just go back to normal?"

"Well, the public hasn't had a chance to adjust because they don't understand but Wally hasn't acted any differently and neither have I or your father," Black Canary said in a soothing voice, kneeling down in front of Richard, putting a hand on her knee.

"That's not true," snapped Richard, "Dad can barely look at me! He seems to feel like it's his fault I'm now female. It's not! I don't even see it as his fault and you would think I would be trying to find someone to blame so I could yell at them. You would also think I would be the one having the most trouble adjusting to the changes but no, seems dad is!" Richard hurled the pillow across the room, having it hit her dresser and rattle the trinkets sitting atop it.

Black Canary smiled softly, ignoring Richard's outburst. "Your dad took it upon himself to protect Gotham, but he couldn't stop you from getting kidnapped. He feels like he let you down, that you feel as though he failed you, that he can protect the whole city, but not his own so… child."

Richard snorted at her mother's slip up before addressing what she had actually said. "But he couldn't have done anything anyway. I was taken by surprise. Even if he could have known something was wrong, he wouldn't have gotten there in time. I didn't even have a chance to fight back."

"I know, and so does he, but he can't stop himself." Black Canary waited a moment to make sure Richard understood before smiling brightly. "Anyway, the reason I came in here is because I knew you wouldn't want to go out if you thought someone would be able to recognize you." She moved a case she had beside her onto the bed and opened it. "I thought this might help."

Looking inside, Richard couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Seriously?"  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Her mother's plan seemed to have worked, since no one was looking at her strangle but she still couldn't shake the feeling that everyone could see through her disguise to who she really was. Admittedly, some of her anxiety could have been coming from the fact that she was out of her element in a big way. It wasn't only the fact that she had never been a big fan of shopping as a boy, or the fact that half the clothing in the first store she had bravely stepped into were highly girl, it was also what her mother had done to her.

Black Canary had decided that the best way to quell Richard's fears of being recognized was to make her look like she had been female for more than a few weeks. In her mother's mind, this meant stylish jeans, a shirt that was not simply a plain white tank top but instead a halter neck that was black at the top and after her chest had hot pink ruffles. The moment Richard had seen it she had had to point out that it had ruffles, something she detested. Along with the clothing came a black wig, giving her the look of having naturally long black hair with a straight cut fringe. Since she wasn't used to having hair hanging around her shoulders and creating a slight heat, her mother had been kind enough to pull the hair up into a ponytail for her, though the ends still brushed her shoulders and caused her to jump in surprise for the first few minutes.

The blonde superhero had wanted Richard to show her father what she looked like, but the teenage had ran through the zetatube and was spat out into Gotham Heights before Black Canary had finished the suggestion.

Now Richard found herself in the middle of a store full of female clothing and accessories and feeling completely lost. She had no idea what to do. There were all different styles and colours but she wasn't even sure what size she was. "Okay," she whispered to herself, "I should just start by finding clothing that doesn't make me want to throw up." As she said this, she was mentally berating herself. _You've taken on the Joker numerous times but clothing makes you cower in fear_.

She slowly made her way through the store, finding some shirts and pants that she didn't mind the idea of wearing and headed to the changing room to try them on. Richard was able to work out what size she was and what clothing she wasn't repulsed by. After three stores, however, her stomach started begging her to stop and get food instead.

Taking her bags, she went to the food court. There were a lot of people in the food court, either talking with friends or actually eating their food. Richard made her way through the thick of people to line up at one of the food stands. It was as she decided what kind of burrito she wanted that she noticed the person behind her was staring at her.

Turning so that she could see them, she was surprised to find a tall male with dirty blond hair smiling at her. She gave a small smile back before turning back to see how the line had progressed. After taking a step forward she felt a tap on her shoulder, making her look behind her again.

"Hi," the guy started, "I'm Jack."

"Dani," Richard replied, holding out her hand.

Jack looked surprised for a moment before shaking her hand. "A girl who shakes hands, refreshing. So what are you doing here?"

Richard frowned in confusion. "Lining up to get something to eat."

Jack scanned her body with his eyes before smirking. "Yeah, but someone built like you must only eat salad and the salad bar is that way." He pointed off to their left and then dropped his hand, placing it on Richard's hip.

With a dark look at his hand, Richard put the bags in her right hand on the ground before grabbing Jack's wrist and twisting it, smirking in satisfaction when he gave a sharp squeak of pain. "It was nice meeting you, Jack. Have a nice day." She let go, grabbed her bags and turned around, moving up to the counter to place her order. Jack wisely avoided Richard after that, allowing her to eat in peace.

When she was finished with her food and sick and tired of shopping, she contemplated returning home, only to remember a promise she had made with her mother. Black Canary had practically begged her to agree that she would buy two skirts, two dresses and at least one pair of heels. Richard, however, had no desire to try and pick out such things. She was, therefore, rather thrilled when she spotted Barbara looking through the window into a rather expensive shoe store.

Richard quickly walked up to her and grabbed her shoulders. "Raa," she said, making Barbara jump and Richard laugh.

"Who are you? Barbara asked, quickly turning to face the dark haired girl and stepping away from her.

"A friend," Richard started in a low voice. "And when you work out which one, please don't say my name loudly. I prefer if you called me Dani at the moment. Alfred picked it."

"_Richard_," the red-head hissed, staring in wonder at the blue eyes that were unmistakable. "_What are you doing here?_" Barbara took in all of Richard's appearance. "And what are you wearing?"

"I ran out of clothing and my mum is torturing me," Richard explained calmly before pulling her bags down and bending down, taking off her sandals. "These things hurt!"

Barbara simply laughed at her friend's discomfort. "So how have you been?"

"Not too bad, though I got hit on in the food court by a guy who thought a good pick up line was to say I looked like the type to eat salads only."

"Such a charmer," Barbara joked, rolling her eyes.

"He was kinda hot," Richard admitted before looking shocked. "I did not just say that. What the hell is wrong with me?"

"Maybe it was the change," suggested her friend before noticing that Richard clearly just wanted the subject changed. "So how's the shopping been?"

"Alright, except that I need your help. Mum made me promise to buy two skirts, two dresses and at least one pair of heels but my courage has gone the way of _my man parts_," she finished in a whispered. "I'll buy you a pair of shoes from this store," she bribed, pointing to the window Barbara had been looking through before picking up her bags.

Barbara agreed and pulled her into one of the clothing store, deciding to buy the shoes last. Once she knew Richard's size, she started grabbing various dresses and skirts off the rack and piling them into her friend's hands. Richard had to try and not trip over the longer dresses as she followed after Barbara.

It was over an hour before Richard returned home through the zetatubes, carrying her bags up to her room. The moment she had pushed the door closed with her foot, she fell onto her bed, lying on her stomach, having no energy left. When she heard her door open she groaned.

"Mum, go away!"

"It's not your mother," someone chuckled.

"Fine, go away, dad," Richard muttered as she heard the rustling of her many shopping bags. "It was wise of me to avoid shopping for so long. I hate it! And some A-hole hit on me. The dis is so heavy on the disgusting that even Superman wouldn't be able to lift it."

"I'm not even going to comment on that." There was a pause before her father spoke again. "You actually bought a dress?"

Richard flipped over and looked at her father in surprise. "Are you actually looking through my stuff?"

"No, I'm moving it to the side so I could actually sit on the bed and I noticed it hanging out of the bag."

"Plausible, not sure I completely believe you, but it is plausible. And mum made me promise to buy it, as well as other girly items." Richard dropped back onto the bed with a tired sigh.

"Get some sleep,' instructed her father, "We have patrol tonight."  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Robin had long ago realized that villains were weird and disturbed with no chance of the dis ever being removed, and yet, they still managed to surprise her. At that moment, she was crawling through the ventilation system of a hotel, trying to find a computer that might have the layout of the building without anyone seeing her. The reason she was forced to do such a thing was one: there was a ball being held so she couldn't sneak around any other way, and two: an insane man who was staying at the hotel, was mixing chemicals with chlorinated water he had obtained from the indoor pool to create what he had dubbed 'super fish'.

The moment her father had told the team of the mission Robin had determined that this guy was crazy. Unfortunately, Batman didn't seem to appreciate her thoughts and had decided that he needed to be dealt with. The fact that he was trying to make a giant piranha did mean that he was dangerous, but Robin was still having trouble with seeing him as anything but insane.

She could tell she was near the pool by the smell that reached her nose. Based on what little she had found out about the building before they arrived, she knew there was an office nearby that she would be able to use for hacking. Once she had the schematics and control of the cameras, she was to alert the rest of the team who were disguised as party guests. They would leave the ball room when she gave them the okay, and split up, half of them locating the fish man and the other half locating the fish.

"How are you doing, Robin?" Aqualad asked through the link.

"Almost there," she assured as she peaked through one of the vents into the room it lead to. It was the pool as she expected but she had not realized that the Life Guards were undergoing training from their superior. "I think I just forgot how to swim!" she stated before realizing what it was she had said.

"What?" Artemis questioned in confusion.

"I mean, the twelve Life Guards are all down here so I'm going to have to be careful. I'm not sure if they would be able to see into the office from the pool."

"Liar," Artemis sighed. "You're as bad as Wally! Stop checking out the Life Guards and get to work."

"You wouldn't be much better," Robin muttered but didn't telepathically send it. She didn't feel like explaining that the Life Guards weren't woman in small swimsuits like Artemis assumed.

"Leave Robin alone," defended Kid Flash. "If he sees something, his allowed to react to it. It's not like his forgotten his job."

"I'm in the office," Robin declared, stopping any possible argument that was going to break out. "I have control of the cameras. I'll put the hallway footage on a repeat but I can't put the ballroom one on repeat for more than a minute or two otherwise they might realize. Professor Ridges is in room 673. Be careful though. From what I read here on the structure of the building, it was his father who originally owned the hotel, so he probably knows the lay out pretty well."

"And the fish?" Aqualad asked.

"Not sure, but there seems to be too much power being diverted into the basement to be usual power consumption," evaluated Robin, switching her wrist computer to show her the cameras.

"Alright, Robin, head towards the basement to meet Kid Flash, M'gann and I there whilst Artemis and Superboy head up to room 673."

Robin followed Aqualad's instructions, being thankful she didn't have to crawl through the vents any more. She snuck out of the office, making sure none of the Life Guards saw her. It ended up that she met up with the rest of the team just outside the basement which was a good thing for them.

"It looks like you need a card to get the door open," stated M'gann. "Should I go get one?"

"No need," assured Robin, quickly hacking into the doors safety system. She looked up when she felt a hand land on her shoulder as the door clicked open.

Kid Flash stood beside her with a large grin on his face. "Life Guards, hey?"

Robin flashed red before Aqualad scolded them to pay attention to the mission. They entered the room and looked around. After a few moments they found a hidden door. It was behind this door that they found two, large tanks holding five fish in total. This fish were twice the size of Superboy though.

"We have Professor Ridges," Superboy stated through the telepathic link.

"We found the fish," Kid Flash replied.

"Artemis, alert the League," ordered Aqualad. "My king will want to have a say in what happens to these sea creatures."

Within twenty minutes, Aquaman and the Flash arrived to take Professor Ridges into custody and deal with the chemically enhanced fish. Once they had been informed of everything and Robin had set the cameras back to normal, they were allowed to leave.

Robin didn't talk all the way back to the mountain, ignoring Kid Flash's complaints that the mission was rather boring. Since she didn't have any mission to focus on, it allowed her to start thinking of things she had been trying to ignore for a few weeks. Once they landed the bio ship, Robin stomped out, heading straight for the gym via her room to change out of her costume into civilian clothing. She ignored M'gann who was calling out to her, asking if she was alright. The moment she entered the gym, she made a beeline for the punching bag, figuring it was the best way to release her frustrations.

She was only allowed to attack the punching bag for little over a minute before she was grabbed from behind, her arms held at her sides by the other person's arms that were wrapped around her stomach. "Let me go!"

"What's wrong, Robin?" Wally asked, his breath hitting her ear.

"Nothing," Robin hissed, only to be sharply turned around, Wally grasping her upper arms.

"Don't lie." Wally moved closer, trying to look into Robin's eyes for the answer through her glasses.

"What's going on?" Superboy asked, frowning at the two.

Wally stepped back, looking over at the super strong hero. "I was trying to convince Robin to come to my house to play video games. I think I've finally have." Before Robin could contradict him, Wally grabbed her hand and sped away from the gym, towards the zetatubes. "See ya, Rob and I are going to play games at my place," Wally explained as he stopped in the living room to say goodbye. Before anyone could say anything, he gave a tug to Robin's hand and continued on with his fast journey to the zetatubes. He didn't slow down until they were at his bedroom at his Uncle's house, where Wally was staying that week.

"Richard, are you okay?"

"Nothing!" Richard snapped again, pulling her hand out of her friend's grasp and taking her shades off. "I just… I wish I came with a manual or something!"

"I think all men wish woman came with a manual," Wally joked, stepping close to his friend as she tried to prevent herself from pacing.

"Men never read manuals," she muttered, rolling her eyes. She seemed to deflate, all her anger and energy dissipating, making her sit on the bed, dropping her head into her hands. "I'm confused! So many things have been changed and it's just getting to me." She barely noticed Wally sit next to her, silently listening to her as she raised her head and continued her rant. "I'm used to being asexual, of my hormones being blocked or something and now, not so much. I don't like it! I just want it to stop!"

"Before, yeah, I noticed if a girl was pretty, but that was about it, no reaction, not like you or any normal person, just that they were pretty. But now, I'm… I don't know. I actually _feel_ things."

"Like with the Life Guards?" Wally questioned, watching Richard drop her head back into her hands before she started nodding. "Richard, that's not a bad thing. So you found some girls attractive."

Richard raised her head to look over the top of her fingers. She swallowed thickly and moved her hands away from her mouth enough so that she could talk. "Um, well, the thing is, the Life Guards… they weren't girls in skimpy swimsuits like Artemis assumed. They were, ar, guys."

Wally was silent for a moment before finally he made some type of noise. "Oh."

"I know," Richard snapped, jumping to her feet and starting to pace. "And it's not the first time. A couple of days ago, when I finally went shopping for clothing, which I hated by the way, a guy hit on me. He was an idiot and I made it clear I wanted nothing to do with him, but when I was telling Barbs about it, I said he was hot. I couldn't believe it! And before that, when I was at your house and choked on the… the chips, it was because of a guy I saw on TV."

"You like guys?" Wally asked when Richard took a breath.

"I don't know," yelped the dark haired girl. "I haven't really been paying attention to anyone in general so I don't know. It could just be that my body isn't used to hormones and release them at the most inconvenient times or what. I didn't want Barbs to kiss me but I've always kind of seen her as a sister, so maybe that's why. I just don't know anymore. I'm just confu…"

Her rant was cut off suddenly. It took her only a moment before her Bat training kicked in and she realized what was happening. Wally had wrapped one arm around her waist, the other holding the back of her neck as he kissed her. She didn't realize at first, but she was responding to the kiss. Richard put her hands on Wally's chest, her mind clearing of the thoughts and questions that had been swirling around within them. She could feel the speedster's hands as though they burned, she could smell his deodorant and she could taste the soda that Wally had drank on the ride back to the mountain.

It was once she registered all these things that Wally pulled away, looking at Richard expectantly. Whatever he was expecting would have to wait whilst Richard tried to register how much time had passed. Once she had evaluated that not even full minute had passed she looked at her friend.

"Did it help?" Wally asked when Richard failed to say anything.

"You kissed me." Richard didn't mean to say that, but she couldn't seem to think of anything else.

The red-head rolled his eyes. "Look passed the fact that it was me and focus more on whether you liked the fact that I'm a guy or not. You didn't like the idea of Barbara trying to kiss and you thought it was because she was so close to you, but I'm the same as her to you, just opposite gender. If you take that out of your reaction to me and your reaction to her, you could probably get some answers."

"Wally, I can't believe you just did that!" Richard said in shock as she mulled over her thoughts.

"Yeah," he agreed, sitting down on his bed. "It would have been a little less weird if you were dressed like Richard, who doesn't hide the fact that she is female, instead of Robin, who does, but hey, at least I can claim the title of most awesome friend. Barbara can't even compete with that." He watched as Richard laughed before he asked the critical question. "So did it get results?"

"Do you really want the answer?" Richard asked uncomfortably, wondering if Wally would really want to hear her thoughts on the kiss.

"You like guys," he guessed.

"Yeah," Richard admitted quietly before sitting down beside Wally. "Do you mind?" When her friend shook his head, she smirked. "Would you care if I was still a guy?"

"No. Your preference doesn't affect me." Wally got up to set up a game for them to play.

Richard sat on Wally's bed thinking over everything since her change before suddenly, she gave a start. "Do you realize that since my change you have practically tackled me when I exited the zetatubes; grabbed my hand multiple times to pull me closer to you so you can run off with me; you've had me give you a massage and you hugged me today to get me to stop killing the punching bag?"

"So?" Wally asked in confusion, turning to look over his shoulder at her.

"You never used to do those sorts of things. The only thing remotely close to those was you used to grab my wrist when you wanted to force me somewhere. You've been treating me different since I became a girl."

"Well, I suppose," admitted Wally, standing up from his crouching position. "It's kind of hard not to notice you're a girl though."

"That's it, I'm going to always dress as Robin around you!" snapped the girl, making her friend laugh.

"Not like that!" chuckled Wally, chucking a remote control into Richard's lap before sitting beside her. "It's more the way you stand, and sit, the way you talk and what you say. We were watching a horror movie the other day and you said 'eww, that was cool.' You never used to say 'eww' and you said it in a really girly way."

"It's not going to stop you from wanting to be my friend, is it?"

"Of course not! You know too many cheat codes to get rid of you. They're helpful when we're in the same team in a game and it means that when we verse each other I can use super speed and you can keep up." He paused what he was saying as he got the game to start loading. "But I do want an award for being the most awesome friend."

Richard reached into her utility belt, pulling out a pen and something that Wally couldn't see. She quickly wrote on it before handing it to Wally, making him laugh. It was a bandage with the words 'award for being the most awesome friend' scrolled on it. "There you go!"


End file.
